"Rethinking the North American Long Poem: Matter, Form, Experiment" (University of Basel, September 16-19, 2021)

Taking the three categories of matter, form, and experiment as general frames of conceptual reference, this conference seeks to examine the ways in which material and immaterial aspects of literary practice, issues of content versus form, and the philosophically and politically inscribed duality of experience and experiment are negotiated in and by North American long poems from the nineteenth century to the present.

"Interfaces of Phonetics" (Carl von Ossietzky University, May 18-19, 2021)

The central idea of the conference "Interfaces of Phonetics" is to specify the role of fine acoustic detail in the language system, to outline how fine acoustic detail is affected by linguistic domains of higher order (e.g., morphology), and to counter concepts from well-known models of speech production, which consider the role of acoustics to be marginal. 

"GAPS 2021: Science, Culture & Postcolonial Narratives" (Carl von Ossietzky University, May 13-15, 2021)

Science is at the heart of some of the most vexing questions facing postcolonial studies today: think, for instance, about the role of science in struggles for environmental justice, in postcolonial responses to the debate about the concept of the Anthropocene, in cultural and political responses to pandemics from HIV/AIDS to the coronavirus, or in the imagination of postcolonial futures in contemporary science fiction. Against this background, this conference seeks to facilitate conversations on science and culture in postcolonial contexts that bring together different disciplinary perspectives such as postcolonial literary scholarship, science and technology studies, literature and science studies, history and philosophy of science, and the environmental humanities. This critical reflection will provide new perspectives on themes and debates such as postcolonial science fiction, the Anthropocene, new materialism, bio-colonialism, and global disparities in scientific mobility.

Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition (GALA)